The Zoetrope is a simple piece of equipment that can be used to view a sequence of pictures to reflect an animated event. During the exercise we each conducted an exercise to reflect this by taking a series of 12 polaroid photos demonstrating a simple motion of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes'. When the Zoetrope was constructed and spun around the centre pole, the sequence seemed to flow and be more 'fluid', moving at a pace that would seem more akin to natural movement. As well as this, the particular track that we had constructed had the unique value to be 'looped'. This afforded our creation to have more 'rewatchability', allowing the user to watch it again without the feeling that they are watching the same thing over again.

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The Zoetrope was created in 1834 by William George Horner and was originally used to create the illusion of motion in short burst sequences for anyone who viewed it. Split into different segments usually running for about 1 - 1.5 seconds, the zoetrope would be created out of 12 - 20 frames. This is important as for a sequence to be fluid to the human eye, it has to be moving at the very least, 10 frames per second. The most basic uses of a Zoetrope would be to show small and insignificant actions such as a person walking or a certain dance. The most successful actions would be looped back on themselves immediately when the sequence finished with no discernible cut or jump, inviting the user to 'rewatch' the sequence once again without the feeling that they're rehashing previous events. One advantage of a Zoetrope is that they can be used to augment the time of a certain sequence, speeding up or slowing down the sequence depending on how fast the device is rotated. Because of this, more detail can be extracted from a sequence depending on how fast the user observes the action, allowing for the viewer to break down each individual event that occurs during its time.

 

Over time the Zoetrope has evolved, being used less and less on a directly general consumer level, however it has indirectly led to a wide employment in a digital form. A GIF is largely regarded as the modern interpretation of a Zoetrope due to their abundance of similarities. Both share the fact that they are short sequences that are composed usually of 12 - 20 frames and last for a couple of seconds and both show basic sequences / actions. The benefit of the GIF that has been created with the advent of digital technology  is that these sequences can be replicated and shared on a much broader scale than a Zoetrope could originally be used for.